Chinmay. Yet Again.

On measuring the wrong things

One of the Techcrunch stories last night was about MixPanel, a Google Analytics for Facebook company. Mixpanel allows developers to track user behavior (what they click on, what actions they perform, when and more) more comprehensively than was previously possible.

There is nothing wrong with MixPanel. In fact, it’s a great example of a company leveling the competitive field— after all, the larger companies have been doing the same for long. However, more accurate measurement implies more focused optimization (which is what the companies using tracking tools seek anyway).

Unfortunately, more focused optimization leads to great popularity but not great substance. Long long ago, I started this blog as a joke. I’d draw up a little sketch which I thought was funny and put it up here. Sometimes, it even was.

Then, people told me that I was good; and of course I thought they were pulling my leg. Still, out of curiosity, I added Google Analytics to the blog— and soon, seeing the number of hits per day became a source of joy or sorrow.

One day, someone submitted this to Reddit. And Google Analytics showed me a thousand hits. Wow!

Soon, I began to see what people like. It doesn’t take a genius to guess the patterns in click-data. I realized everytime I drew something “worth talking about”, popularity on Reddit soared. If I drew obscure geek humor, noone liked it. (Yes, on Reddit!)

It’d have been easy to optimize. I could have drawn crass humor that people would love. But I didn’t, because I was lazy. Being lazy, doing something you don’t like isn’t easy (that’s what hard-working people do!), and soon, I stopped drawing entirely, in part because people began telling me what to draw.

But the point of this discussion isn’t my motivations. The point is that once you minutely measure and optimize for what makes your service popular, you slowly slip down Maslow’s pyramid.

That’s why Reddit has crappy posts on the homepage (active-Redditters have figured out which items are likely to be popular and aggressively submit those. It isn’t surprising most of these items lack depth). That’s also why Digg has even crappier items— appealing to larger masses requires slipping further down the Pyramid.

I wouldn’t be the best judge of what is fair for a company and what isn’t; but the consumer in me is afraid of being in a Skinner cage, and the human in me is afraid that pornography and gambling are about the only thing that can survive at the base of Maslow’s Pyramid.

Biking in WA

It’s supposed to be the biking capital of the country, or so I am told. And if you don’t mind hills and valleys, biking here can be fun, as I’ve realized since I bought my bike yesterday.

Like any upright CS student, the first thing I did once I bought the bike was to figure out how to hack the system. Here’s what I’ve discovered so far:

You’re a pedestrian on the sidewalk and a vehicle on the road So, you can ride anywhere you like, including roads that scream “DO NOT ENTER”. Simply enter on the sidewalk. Also useful if you want to make a quick U-turn. Simply get on the sidewalk and cycle the other way. Lastly, useful if you have a pedestrian crossing and when you can’t get the green (because your bike has too little metal for the light to detect)

Using a bike lane is not mandatory So you can use the above hack anywhere!

Seattle has a RideFree Area: There’s no reason to spend any more calories going up Seattle’s hills.

More later.

On comments

You see, commenting on the Web has a serious deficiency— there’s no incentive to post good comments. Which results in three undesirable species of commentators— the Morons, the Trolls, and the Verbose.

The Morons are the folks you meet on Youtube. The Trolls are them misguided souls on Techcrunch, Digg and other websites who argue venomously, tail people and in general make the Web a painful experience. The Verbose make a (somewhat) valid point, but take all eternity to do so.

(Note to self: XKCD could become a comic wikipedia at this rate!)

What the web really needs is a credit rating system. Post a bad comment, bam, your credit-rating goes down (I think others get to vote on your comment). Post another one soon enough, and it goes even lower. If you learn some discipline, make some regular good comments, slowly and surely your rating will improve. I suggest users should also get free credit reports.

This will solve all our Web’s problems, and this will be an investment succeeding generations of Web users will thank us for. This is our moment… our time to turn the page on the policies of the past.

Car country

I’m beginning to think that America consists solely of freeways, with some condos thrown in for good measure. Why doesn’t anyone actually walk on the street? Maybe it’s because of these huge cars too big to be built for real people. I’m tired of firing up GPS on the phone just to figure out which way to turn at an intersection.

I also hereby pronounce drive-ins evil. Drive-in restaurants, drive-in banks, even drive-in Toys-R-Us— I’m sick of all of them. I was positively shocked when I saw a drive-in bank— I can’t believe someone would open an account at a branch which doesn’t even have chairs. There’s a drive-in BankOfAmerica down the street, but they don’t have an ATM I can safely walk up to (of course there’s no way to get in, so there’s no chairs to worry about either).

I’m told cars are an expression of America’s respect for individualism, but I honestly think indivisualism is a bloody misguided principle to found a country on. Especially when indivisualism reduces to a narrow focus on the welfare of the self to the exclusion to that of all others. All it gives you are drive-in McDonalds and a 2km walk to buy a carton of milk.

PS: Actually, I also have to mention that some people do think differently— I must blog about Microsoft’s shuttle and Connector service and of the beautiful Building 99 I work at.

First day story

Today was the first day at my internship at Microsoft Research, Redmond. Lots of interesting things happened today, but I guess everyone has a particular first-day-at-work story. Here’s mine. As usual, it was my fault.

A thoroughly disoriented Chinmay (jetlag + US public transport being the culprits) walked into the long line of interns at Building 92. We were all queued up to get our temporary badges so that, um, we could enter the building to get our permanent badges. As is well-known, time dilates in a queue, and 20 seconds in the line I’m trying to figure out a way to get my badge asap.

Maybe, I could just pickpocket one from a guy who’d got it (it didn’t have a photograph anyway) ;)

Even as I was hatching my evil plans, a volunteer announced they were splitting lines— “A to L this line, the rest form a new line down there”. Ok, got to hurry— I was the second person in the new line!!

Soon, at the head of the queue:

MSR volunteer: Last name please?

Me: Kulkarni

MSR V: How do you spell that?

(Ah, these Americans… unaware of other cultures… blah blah)

Me: K for Kilo, U for umbrella…

MSR V: Um, that’s the other line.

Me: Oh. it is J, K, L.

MSR V: makes a face— Did we really hire this guy??

PS: I still think it’s unfair that A thru’ L have more last names (they do, don’t they?). It’s even worse that I almost made it to the other side!

Brevity: Six developments of a thought

This is an experiment inspired by Picasso’s Bull (eleven developments of a lithograph). I’m nowhere close to the artist, but here’s an attempt.

1. I’ve a hunch that brevity in an idea is correlated with how important it is. Take for example the idea that 80% of success is in showing up (attributed to Woody Allen). (168 chars)

2. In my opinion, brevity of thought reflects how powerful it is. Woody Allen’s quote “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” is an example. (140 chars)

3. I think, the more succinct an idea, the more powerful it is. For example, look at Woody Allen’s “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” (138 chars)

4. I think succinctness of thought is indicative of its power. E.g. Woody Allen’s “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” (121 chars)

5. Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”. Is the succinctness of thought indicative of power? (113 chars)

6. Is brevity of thought indicative of power? Eg. Woody Allen: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” (102 chars)